Romance is a genre of filmmaking which isn’t quite overused as much as it’s expected. No matter what kind of movie you’re making there usually is at least one romantic subplot. So when it’s actually the main focus of a film we get lost in all the grand gestures and adorable moments between characters that we almost forget that we’re watching a film.
Unlike the more than the staple light subgenre of the romantic-comedy, where everything is always fine and dandy, here we’re actually able to examine a real relationship. This however is not new to cinema. We saw the same over a span of a number of years with When Harry Met Sally and we most recently saw the “real relationship” in The Notebook and that’s what this movie does so well. It reminds us what’s truly important in a relationship, whether it be a friendship, acquaintance or the love of our lives, are those small moments that we share sometimes.
One Day allows us to follow the ever changing relationship of Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) as we see where they are, as two friends and as people, on July 15th (the anniversary of the day the first met) every year over the span of more than two decades.
Some films would use that premise as an excuse to say that they knew each other truly over a span of a month in total when you add up all the time that they actually spent in the same room together, but it’s pretty much understood (since this takes place in the real world) that we’re just seeing snippets of a much grander romance.
Each scene that we are privy to of Emma and Dexter interacting becomes more and more interesting as we can see one obviously feeling for the other while the other is completely oblivious and we’re left sitting on the edge of our seat wondering whether either the other is going to figure it out, stumble into it or she/he’s finally going to say something. These scenes work not just because we know something that the characters don’t, but rather because while the characters may not be completely honest with each other, and at times even themselves, but the film is always honest with its audience. There’s never a time when we are not in a complete understanding of what’s going on with these characters. It does make the whole scheme of things predictable at times but due to chemistry and brilliant acting on screen we never worry about that but rather just enjoy the dance that is Emma and Dexter’s relationship.
The true test of a romantic film is, I believe at least, if at the end of it all you wish that it was the story of you and your significant other to be. We don’t live in a perfect world, not every moment of our lives (together or apart) is all roses and lilies. However, at the end of it all, all we can ever hope for is that the bitter that happened in our lives exists not just to make us stronger and a better person but to accentuate to wonderfully sweet moments and make them so beautifully memorable. That’s what this movie was. It was a series of bitter and sweet moments which eventually ended up making the sweet ones ever sweeter.